336 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



markings between the mountain zebra, with the 

 " gridiron " over the hind-qiiarters, and legs 

 barred to the hoofs, and the true Burchell zebras, 

 Avith perfectly white legs and scarcely a vestige 

 of transverse stripes. The Somaliland type is the 

 most primitive, and it is with this that the 

 hybrids most closely agree in their mai'kings. 



To what has already been said about the ancestry 

 of the horse, it may be added that the stripes 

 recorded approach also to the SomaKland zebra 

 type, as may be seen by comparing fig. 36 of the 

 heads of a Norwegian pony with that of the zebra 

 in question, seen in figs. 34 and 35. That the 



ancient horse had an upright mane like a zebra 

 is shown by the dramngs left us by palaeolithic 

 man, and, with regai'd to its groiind colouring, 

 Professor Ewart (p. 116) is "inclined to believe 

 that the body colour of the striped ancestral horse 

 of the temperate regions was mainly of a yellowish- 

 brown colour. As the descendants extended their 

 range the ground colour would change, a sand 

 coloiir probably prevailing in desert areas, a red- 

 dish-dun in the vicinity of forests, a mouse-dun 

 in the far north, a light tint near the tropics, and 

 in the uplands a grey or ash tint." 

 2, The Sroadway, Hsunmers'inith. 



THE METEIC SYSTEM 



By James Quick. 



IN 1895 the question of the general introduction 

 of the metric system of weights and measru-es 

 was prominent in many minds. The Report of the 

 Select Parliamentary Committee appointed to 

 investigate the question was sent in diiring July 

 of that year. This report teemed vnth reasons 

 for the adoption of the system ; much evidence 

 having been brought forward in the affirmative, 

 and practically none in the negative. In November 

 1895, an influential deputation, representing forty- 

 six chambers of commerce in the United Kingdom, 

 waited upon Mr. Balfour to lu'ge the change from 

 Imperial units to metric ones. 



Over three years have now passed since the 

 •Government was thus approached, and beyond the 

 passing of a permissive Bill, not much has been 

 done officially, towards legalising the use of the deci- 

 mal system, or making it compulsory in England. 

 It must, however, be only a matter of short time 

 before such an advantageous and far-reaching 

 system is accepted in England. 



Happily for Science, the scientific world has for 

 long practically discarded the confusing English 

 system for the metric, whether its calculations 

 are simple or intricate. No one -v\dll deny that by 

 so doing scientific men throughout the world 

 have been di-awn more into touch with one 

 another, and that the bond of friendship between 

 them has been strengthened. No matter of what 

 nationality a man may be, whether English, 

 French, German, or Italian, if he is edvicated in 

 Science he will at once grasp the scale of an 

 illustration, a curve or a drawing. He will 

 immediately understand the magnitude of a result 

 of his foreign co-worker, if such terms as centi- 

 metres, litres, ergs, or kilogrammes-metres are used. 



I have said that the scientific world has practi- 

 cally adopted the metric system. Engineers, 

 however, still treasure the foot and the pound, 

 and keep the foot-pound of work as a precious 

 thing. A foot is a foot, a pound is a pound, and 



a foot-pound of work is a very simple expression 

 they say. More than one Continental estimate for 

 plant and machinery has, however, been lost to 

 oixr engineers for the reason that the machines 

 would not be designed to metric dimensions and the 

 cost was not calculated in the country's coinage. 



Considering the importance of the subject, it 

 will be useful to discuss the varioxis units and 

 terms of the metric system, and to point out 

 their relations to those of the English system. 

 The great beauty of the former is, of course, the 

 facility with which one can change from one 

 magnitude to another, by simply transferring 

 the decimal point. Take an example, before 

 going further. To reduce, say o039-5 millimetres 

 to metres only requires a glance to write 5'0395 

 metres, as there are a thousand millimetres to a 

 metre. Now, even thoiigh the reduction from 

 feet to yards is one of the simplest operations 

 upon the Imperial system, yet the division of the 

 above number by three ^vill not be done so 

 quickly as the reduction of millimetres to metres. 

 The uniformity of the system will also be clearly 

 seen from the follo'\\dng tables. 



Lenqths. 



The unit of length is the metre, and was origin- 

 ally calculated to be the exact ten-millionth part 

 of a quadrant of the earth, from pole to equator. 

 This standard length is preserved in the French 

 Archives in the form of a platinum rod at a 

 temperatiu'e of melting ice. The metre is about 

 three inches over a yard in length, as will be seen 

 from the following table, and it is split up into 

 tenths and hundredths for convenience in small 

 measurements. Multiples of it are also taken for 

 the other extreme. We notice here, as in all the 

 other tables, that a unit is never split up, nor 

 multiples taken in anything but tens, hrmdreds, 

 or thousands, thus keeping rigidly to decimal 

 manipulations : 



